Religious, Social and Political Values of Chinese Christians
A public lecture by Professor Yang Zhong

Co-sponsored by the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy of The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Tech

Thursday, November 14, 2019, 4:30 p.m.- 6:00 p.m.
The Clary Theater in the Student Success Center, Georgia Tech

Visitors parking is available on the North Avenue across the street to Georgia Tech campus

Based on questionnaires and extensive interviews, this lecture attempts to shed some empirical and comparative light on the religiosity and socio-political values of Chinese Christians. The study reveals that Chinese Christians have relatively high levels of religiosity in both believing and behaving aspects.  Chinese Christians in the study also turn out to be rather conservative in their social values, more so than the general population in China and Christians in the United States. With regard to their political values, majority of the Chinese Christians in the study are strong supporters of democratic values and civil liberties. It is further found that the religious values of Chinese Christians are positively related to their socio-political values. More religiously fundamentalist Christians tend to hold more socially conservative values and more supportive of democratic values. Findings from the study are revealing and carry implications for development of civil society in China.

Dr. Yang Zhong is Professor at the Department of Political Science of the University of Tennessee, U.S.A. He is also the Director of Public Opinion Research Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Dr. Zhong’s main research and teaching interests include Chinese local governance, urban studies in China and Chinese political culture. He has published over 60 scholarly articles and book chapters, authored three books and co-edited several books.